COVID-19: Local ‘mudik’ not allowed, Anies clarifies after confusion

After a number of conflicting statements from city and police officials, Jakarta Governor Anies Baswedan has reiterated that a local mudik (Idul Fitri exodus) is not permitted, urging residents to stay at home and keep in touch with family members through digital communication instead.

“Everyone needs to stay at home,” Anies said in a statement on Saturday. “The virus knows no holidays, it doesn’t care if it’s Lebaran [Idul Fitri] or not. Let’s not exacerbate the situation in Greater Jakarta […] and render our [mitigation] efforts over the past two months useless.

Anies issued on Friday a decree banning all Jakarta residents from leaving Greater Jakarta, with the exception of travel serving essential needs to curb the interregional transmission of COVID-1

Anies said the travel ban would not apply to workers in essential sectors, including state officials, members of international organizations, security personnel or medical workers.

The former education minister confirmed, however, that the decree did not mean that residents were allowed to mudik within Greater Jakarta, despite previous statements from Jakarta Public Order Agency (Satpol PP) head Arifin and National Police traffic corps operational head Sr. Comr. Benyamin to the contrary.

“There’s no such thing as a ‘local mudik’; only ‘virtual mudik’ is allowed,” Anies said.

According to the official government count, Jakarta had 6,059 confirmed COVID-19 cases with 463 deaths as of Monday.